Colombia, 1913. In the Caribbean village of Las Aguas, the life of young widow Isabel Sorel changes when the exotic Italian Vincenzo Di Domenico arrives. Leading a flashy caravan consisting of two other men as bizarre as himself, two mules, an electric generator, two boxes of film and a projector, Vincenzo Di Domenico has arrived in Las Aguas to put together a travelling film show. In spite of Don Arturo's objections, for whom cinema is an invention of the devil, Isabel approaches the magic offered by Di Domenico and becomes the first actress of Colombian cinema. However, despite the great efforts of the entire production in a hostile context, a hundred years later all traces of this film seem to have been lost. At the Cineteca di Torino, Alessia, a young restorer, continues the work of restoring the film that pioneered Colombian cinema in a toxic working environment. The head of the cooperative to which the work has been subcontracted, Gabriele, turns the restoration process into a nightmare. Alessia, however, finds solace in an enigmatic and penetrating gaze that the film's actress, Isabel Sorel, seems to be directing at her from the past. As she immerses herself in her work, Alessia seems to lose touch with her surroundings, only to find herself in a universe where the boundaries between past and present, reality and fiction, become increasingly blurred. "Ai Flores do verde pino", the lost film of the Colombian pioneers, thus becomes a living surface, an opportunity to write another story.
Inspired by films such as "The Neverending Story" and "Everything Everywhere All at Once", the film is a kind of magical multiverse in which several time planes converge. It is a tribute to cinema and its ability to play with time and mix different languages: costume film, contemporary sequel and a precise work on the main characters (Alessia, Isabel), who are entrusted with the task of embodying a personal, spiritual and artistic quest that leads them to erase all the boundaries between reality and perception. By transforming their lives and trying to make their everyday world a better place, both Isabel and Alessia also act on history, making it a place where the cinematic actions of individuals contribute to the whole. By performing these actions, they answer the question implied by the entire film: how would the history of an entire nation, in this case Colombia, have changed if the milestones, the founding pages, had not been tainted by an original flaw in the form? How would all of our personal stories have been different if the history of cinema had not originated from a narrative that has always placed a Caucasian alpha male at its centre?
Matteo Pecorara (Responsabile sviluppo)